University police decided to form a union April 10 by a vote of 9 to 7.
Sixteen of the 17 patrol officers voted.
The police are now part of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a union for public jobs.
Chris Johnson, president of AFSCME and a campus custodian, said the police decided to join because of lack of representation.
"They were very unhappy with the university; there was no one to speak to," Johnson said.
Police weren't being paid overtime, had no grievance procedure and pay was based on merit, Johnson said.
Before the union, whenever an officer had a grievance, the complaint would end up with the administration who are biased instead of an impartial judge, Johnson said.
Also, in Indiana, employers can fire workers without a reason. If the employee is in a union though, there must be a just cause, said Marty Mullins, a university police officer.
Mullins said he supported the union because it gives him a stronger bargaining position.
Johnson accused university and police officials of scaring the officers from the union by spreading literature stating things the officers would lose if they joined the union.
"The university did everything they could but the officers stayed strong," Johnson said.
Randy Hyman, associate president for student services, denied the allegations of bullying.
"That's absolutely not true," Hyman said. "I think we've been very accommodating."
Gene Burton, director of public safety, also said that there were no scare tactics involved.
"The bottom line is the only thing I wanted was that the patrolmen knew exactly what they were voting for," Burton said.
Mellins said that he did have conversations with supervisors and officers about joining the union.
"Some officers may have felt intimidated," Mellins said. "I thought some things said were kind of misleading."
However, Mellins said he doesn't feel as though he has lost anything by joining the union.
Officers have had plans to unionize since October, Johnson said.
Only patrol officers are allowed to join the union, which already represented all of Ball State workers except for administrators and clerical workers, Johnson said.
Because of an agreement between the state and universities in the 1960s, clerical workers can unionize, just not with AFSCME, Johnson said.
Though three of the five university dispatchers want to join the union, the university claims they can't because they are classified as clerical workers, Johnson said.
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